Perceptions of information products such as Wikipedia can depend on assumptions and stereotypes about the people who create them. As new Wikipedians consider contributing they are likely to apply such assumptions and ask themselves: “Are Wikipedia contributors my kind of people? Is this a group I’d like to belong to?” In this qualitative study I address the potential challenge of these questions by exploring readers and infrequent editors’ perceptions of Wikipedia contributors and their motivations. Through analysis of twenty semi-structured interviews, I find evidence of strong negative perceptions as well as positive ones which nonetheless prevent users from identifying with active Wikipedia contributors. I argue that these perceptions present a barrier to the progression of participation over time. I conclude by discussing the practical challenges of my findings for Wikipedia and other online collaborative systems.

2. “I WOULD NEVER JOIN A CLUB THAT
WOULD HAVE ME AS A MEMBER.”
- GROUCHO MARX

3. WHO WRITES
WIKIPEDIA
?

4. WHO ARE WIKIPEDIA
CONTRIBUTORS?
WHAT MOTIVATES THEM?
WHAT ARE THEIR
CHARACTERISTICS?

5. 310 SCREENING SURVEYS
20 SEMI-STRUCTURED
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
ITERATIVE THEMATIC
CODING ANALYSIS

6. MOTIVATION

7. GIVE BACK, MAKE
A DIFFERENCE,
LOVE, CARE

8. “There are some people who write about
really local things that they’re passionate
about. Like my neighbor. . . she was really
into how Northern California tried to
become its own state. . . She had really
no forum to share this with the world. . .
and then we told her about Wikipedia.”
- Maria (mid 20s, public health worker)

9. PRO-SOCIAL
SELF-INTEREST

10. $$$?

11. “Do you think Wikipedia would be different if
people got paid?”
“Oh yeah, I think there’d be a lot of bullshit in
there. I think people would just throw a lot of
stuff in there thinking, ‘I’m getting paid so it
really doesn’t matter what I’m putting down!’
[The way it is now] I think people really put
their heart and soul into it because they like
doing it.”
- Donald (60s, retired truck driver)

12. HEART, SOUL
QUALITY, INTRINSIC
TRUSTWORHTY

13. WHO ARE
CONTRIBUTORS?

14. “EVERYDAY FOLKS”

15. “. . . just everyday people. . . we’ve got
our geniuses, or lawyers, or scientists, or
you, or journalists, or me. I’m just an old
man who doesn’t know much but I know
a little bit.”
- Donald (mid 60s, retired truck driver)

16. “. . . for every little thing on the internet
there’s somebody out there. There’s
somebody sitting in Birmingham or Belize,
wherever. . . [or fixing] punctuation is what
they were born to give. And by God, I’m
going to let them have it. Why do I need to
eat off their plate? I’ve got a thing about
rivers in Iowa.”
- Russell (40s, probation officer)

17. WIKIPEDIA’S
INTELLECTUAL CLASS

18. EDUCATED
EXPERT, CREDENTIALED
RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS
SEASONED TRAVELERS
OLDMENINJACKETS
TWEED

19. THE “GEEK”
STEREOTYPE

20. “I’m sure they’re locked up in a room. . . And
Wikipedia is the ultimate thing for them. . .
people in their room alone, playing World of
Warcraft and things like that.”
– Lee (20, college student)
“Maybe they’re home-bound people, or
people who have no life. . . ”
– Roger (50s, rock photographer)

21. “. . . a bunch of nerds sitting around
updating things every second. . . the nerdy
technical guy sitting around in his mother’s
basement. . . ”
– Neil (20s, office worker)
“There are people that live for [Wikipedia].
. . I imagine them sitting on a chair in their
boxer shorts with a catheter and a feeding
tube.”
– Russell (40s, probation officer)

22. DISCUSSION

23. MY KIND OF
PEOPLE?

24. THEORY v.
PRACTICE

25. IMPLICATIONS

26. THANKS!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COYE CHESHIRE
ELIZABETH F. CHURCHILL
JENNA BURRELL
ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS
THIS RESEARCH WAS SUPPORTED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM THE
INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (IBER) AT UC BERKELEY.